If you’re like any marketing team out there, you know that content takes you far. We create content for plenty of reasons like connecting with our audience or sharing information. However, if we’re really being honest here, content is one of the contributors that gets us to our goal of converting our leads. So, how does this work? Do we produce without stop and hope someone loves it or is there a strategic way to go about this? We’re here to clue you in and share four ways to produce content that converts.
Creating Content That Converts
Creating content that converts really comes down to making something that resonates with your audience, enough for them to believe that whatever you’re offering is what they need. It sounds simple enough, but as we all know, it’s much trickier and complex than it sounds.
You can start by going through and assessing your content where it exists. This can be content on your website, social media platforms, emails, etc. Getting a good understanding of what you already have going on can help you determine what’s next. As you go through your content assets, keep these tips in mind:
Optimize Current Content
This post may be about creating content that converts but the first strategy we’re going to touch on relates to your current content. You’ve already put a lot of work into your current setup and there’s no reason why that should go to waste.
Scroll through your current pages and take note of what’s worked really well and what hasn’t performed to expectations. This will give you an idea of what to mimic and what to improve. This process may be lengthy but it’s very much worth it. Break up your audit into parts so that it’s easier to tackle. For example, you may start by looking through your website and figuring out where to optimize there. Your copy may not be clear and straightforward, maybe your navigation bar is too cluttered, or your CTAs aren’t obvious. Once you’ve updated these, you can move on to analyzing your blog content, email content, etc.
Another useful step to take when figuring out where to optimize is to look at what your competitors are doing. They may be utilizing keywords in a way you haven’t thought to or maybe they’re targeting an audience you haven’t previously explored. There are a lot of useful takeaways you can walk away with when you check out what others in your industry are doing.
Create a Great Site Experience
Much of your content is housed on your website. This is your main storyteller, and the place people will go to learn about your company. Visitors want something that is streamlined but also pleasing to the eye. They want to feel excited and inspired without also feeling lost.
Your page needs to be intuitive to navigate — potential customers should be able to find what they’re looking for easily. If you sell products, highlight them properly and design your page in a way that easily directs attention to where you want it to go. If you sell a service, make the value of what you offer clear rather than using vague language. Do you bring about results X times faster than competitors? Don’t be afraid to be straightforward and follow up with to-the-point CTAs.
Produce Content that Engages
Content that engages and intrigues is content that converts. You can play with copy in a variety of ways to create interest and encourage leads to convert whether that means downloading a guide, signing up for newsletters, or making a purchase. A couple of ideas include:
- Using an incentive. Sweeten the deal by offering something in exchange. For example, sign up for emails and you’ll always be first in line for upcoming events, 20% discount to SMS subscribers, or a downloadable guide when they fill out a form with their contact information.
- Create a sense of urgency. Create a sense of need. Not only does your lead need this, but they also need it now. Do this by creating promotional offers or putting deadlines on your deals. “First 50 to sign up get a free consultation” or “sale ends in 24 hours” messaging can get people moving.
- Building trust. Establishing yourself as a brand that is genuine and trustworthy is how to find and keep your customers. Business is about building relationships and if you do it right, your audience will engage with your content consistently and think back to it often.
Use the Data
Our final tip for creating content that converts? Find ideas that have been proven to work. The place to look for these ideas is in the data. There are two different sources of data that are useful.
The first one is your own. You have analytics tracking your website activity, social media likes, and email opens. Now is the time to use it. You can easily see what has succeeded and what has underperformed. Take the successes and pinpoint what it was about them that worked. Then take that information and find ways to duplicate it, add to it, and improve it.
Let’s say you’re looking back on social media content you’ve shared in the past. Maybe your “happy holidays” post was just average and didn’t lead to any exciting moments but your giveaway post led to a ton of engagement. On your next go around, you can turn your holiday post into a giveaway. “Happy Holidays to our loyal customers. To show our love, we’re giving away our top selling product to three lucky fans. Make sure to follow our account and let us know why you love using xzy in the comments below for a chance to win.”
The second location is outside data. Keyword research helps you explore broad topics and narrow down terms to ones that your customers are searching for. There are a variety of tools out there that can help you out like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or even Google Search Console. Using these, you will be able to discover new queries to target that match what people are interested in when performing a search. You may come across some high volume keywords with low competition that you can easily incorporate into your content strategy.
The Takeaway
Content is a fun aspect of marketing that can take on all forms. But as marketers, we’re not just creating content because it’s fun to do. We’re looking for results. When you’re properly optimizing, researching, and implementing content, you’ll get where you want to be.
